Guard Your Heart
Ryan Ward
What is one of your irrational fears? In my early childhood, I would visit my great-grandparent's farm which still had an outhouse, even though they had inside plumbing. During one visit, my uncle told me that the outhouse was unsafe because there were rattlesnakes at the bottom of the pit and they would get you if you sat down in there. I cautiously looked inside to listen for the vipers and was pushed into the outhouse by my uncle, who then barricaded the door preventing my escape. In that dark, musty-smelling outhouse I developed a deep fear of snakes that, thankfully, has declined in intensity over the years…but I still hate them.
The funny thing about this fear is that I have run across snakes in the wild a handful of times - and I am still alive to talk about it. I know in my head that I have an irrational fear of snakes because the data of my life suggests that I have a 100% survival rate when I encounter them. However, every time I see a snake on television, or see a movie, or even read about them, my blood runs cold and I am ready to fight or RUN (most likely the latter). My heart (emotions) can get the best of me despite what I know to be true - snakes have never harmed me, and I am certain that they are not planning to do so in the future.
Knowledge can be a principal ingredient in diffusing fear, however, there are times when we allow fear (anxiety, phobias) to have free reign in our thought life. Do you allow any fear, anxiety, or worries, to have free reign in your thought life? If you have these intrusive thoughts, this blog is not being written to tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, it is meant as an encouragement to you that there is a better way. This better way involves us pressing into God and letting His Word and Spirit saturate us with the knowledge of truth in our lives. Here are a few scriptures to meditate on:
Isaiah 26:3-4:
"You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the Lord always,
for the Lord God is the eternal Rock."
Philippians 4:4-8:
"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
When you and I allow time for God to speak to us, He does a great work within. Romans 12:2 encourages us to not ”copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think”. I believe that this transformation is one of God’s ways that He imbues us with the knowledge of His thoughts about who we are in Him. We cannot help but be changed by this knowledge. May this knowledge of what God thinks about you not only defuse the fears you have, I pray that it protects you from allowing those intrusive thoughts to have a stronghold in your life.